The Informal Regulation of Gender: Fear and Loathing in the Locker Room

Abstract

The author contemplates how shifting, but largely unexamined, codes of masculinity have led to an emergent practice among men in locker rooms to hide their bodies. Contemplating the informal policing and regulation of men by men with respect to increasingly infrequent displays of nakedness, the author draws an unexpected connection between an arguably innocuous modesty among men in locker rooms, on the one hand, and the safety of queers, on the other.

Keywords:

• Masculinity
• gender
• homophobia
• governmentality
• self-regulation
• heterosexism
• social constructionism
• sports